Author Topic: 45,000 points to israel in business class  (Read 3784 times)

Offline koshergourmetmart

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45,000 points to israel in business class
« on: July 02, 2018, 10:50:01 PM »
Use Aegean’s Miles+Bonus program-- Because of that, you can use any Star Alliance airlines for you travels from the US to Israel. That means Austrian, Swiss, LOT, Lufthansa, Turkish, and, of course, United. Any of those airlines are great ones to fly in business class as they offer a very nice hard product and airlines like Austrian and Turkish even offer catering in business class!

How to Book Business Class to Israel for Just 45,000 Miles
Since last year, Aegean has made it possible to book partner awards online. However, their award booking engine is not the best so I advise you start by searching on United’s website. To make it easy, search for your departure city in the US to Israel and make sure you select for business class and that you want to look at the 30 day calendar to see all the options. On dates you see 75,000 miles, that is the United flight while the 85,000 mile options are partners that fly through Europe.

Note: There is one thing to be aware of – Aegean only lets you have one connection on award tickets. This means that if you fly through Europe, the major airport in the US that you would depart to fly to Europe must be your originating airport for this ticket. For example, if you are flying LOT, you would be flying something like New York – Warsaw – Tel Aviv. You cannot go Buffalo – New York – Warsaw – Tel Aviv. But, you can fly from your regional airport if you catch that United business class flight from Newark as that is the only non-stop from the US to Israel with Star Alliance.

To actually search for and select business class flights on Aegean, you must have the required miles in your account. So, just search through United to get started.

Fuel Surcharges

Aegean does pass on fuel surcharges so you will need to pay more in cash when flying on airlines like Austrian, Lufthansa, and Swiss. Turkish charges less and LOT and United do not have any. United awards do not charge any fuel surcharges so make sure you take this into account.

The best option would the United Airlines flight from Newark. The problem is that business class award space on this flight is very hard to come by! I searched through the calendar and did not find any until April! It can open up but you will either need to plan very far in advance or pretty much last minute.

On the other hand, there is a ton of availability with LOT Airlines (through Warsaw). They have a newer lie-flat business class seat that is supposed to be very good so this is a great option. Plus, you could take one of the longer layovers to get out and check out a bit of Warsaw while you are waiting.

If you fly with Turkish, your fuel surcharges from the US will be around $250-300. If you fly with Austrian, Swiss, or Lufthansa, expect to see fuel surcharges over $500 for one way!

So, if you want to pay as little out of pocket as possible, look for flights in this order:

United
LOT
Turkish
Everyone else
How to Get Aegean Miles?
Ok, now that you see you can get an awesome business class deal for just 45,000 miles, how do you go about getting those 45,000 miles? Fortunately, Aegean is now a transfer partner of SPG so you can convert SPG points to Aegean at a 1:1 ratio (with the regular 5,000 mile bonus for every 20,000 points transferred). That means you only need 40,000 SPG points to do this.

You can also transfer points from other people’s Aegean accounts! It only costs €15 per transfer so that can be a great way to move other people’s miles to your account. If you have Aegean elite status, you can setup a Together Account and pool up to 5 other people’s miles into your account for free.

Finally, if someone sets up an Aegean account, they get a free 1,000 bonus miles. So, that is at least 5,000 miles if you use a Together Account.


I copied the info from here https://runningwithmiles.boardingarea.com/fly-business-class-israel-us-just-45k-miles/

Offline Dan

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Re: 45,000 points to israel in business class
« Reply #1 on: July 02, 2018, 10:58:06 PM »
I've posted this dozens of times.
Save your time, I don't answer PM. Post it in the forum and a dedicated DDF'er will get back to you as soon as possible.

Offline metsguy

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Re: 45,000 points to israel in business class
« Reply #2 on: July 02, 2018, 10:59:42 PM »
Congrats on 50k posts!

Offline Chosidtravel

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Re: 45,000 points to israel in business class
« Reply #3 on: July 02, 2018, 11:05:15 PM »
1. Where can I found aware chart of Aegean for diff destinations.
2. Is it cheaper only for Israel or other dest also?

3. Works with flight + hotels packedge?

Offline cholent

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Re: 45,000 points to israel in business class
« Reply #4 on: July 02, 2018, 11:30:53 PM »
I've posted this dozens of times.
True, but I wish you would update your ultimate Israel award chart to include this
Don't ask stupid questions and you won't get stupid answers

Offline davidrotts63

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Re: 45,000 points to israel in business class
« Reply #5 on: July 02, 2018, 11:36:28 PM »
UA ORD-EWR-TLV Polaris J
90k A3 plus €9.60 2 pax
surprisingly enough I couldn't find any other ones in that thread.
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Offline sammy n

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Re: 45,000 points to israel in business class
« Reply #6 on: July 03, 2018, 12:02:50 AM »
I just booked it a few days ago.
surprisingly enough I couldn't find any other ones in that thread.

Offline davidrotts63

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Re: 45,000 points to israel in business class
« Reply #7 on: July 03, 2018, 12:03:54 AM »
I just booked it a few days ago.
Yes. I'm just saying I'm surprised no one else booked that (or just posted that they booked it)
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Offline shapsam

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Re: 45,000 points to israel in business class
« Reply #8 on: July 03, 2018, 01:30:32 AM »
Yes. I'm just saying I'm surprised no one else booked that (or just posted that they booked it)
Because you can only transfer from SPG...

Offline davidrotts63

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Re: 45,000 points to israel in business class
« Reply #9 on: July 03, 2018, 01:34:39 AM »
Because you can only transfer from SPG...
Well you know 40k SPG (for 50k A3 with bonus) vs 85k UR (for UA) is an easy 50k SPG for me.
Or what about on LH that's almost as rare.
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Offline smart man

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Re: 45,000 points to israel in business class
« Reply #10 on: July 03, 2018, 03:06:14 AM »
Well you know 40k SPG (for 50k A3 with bonus) vs 85k UR (for UA) is an easy 50k SPG for me.
Or what about on LH that's almost as rare.
Most ppl don't have extra A3 around, or uses for A3 other than nyc-tlv. It's not so cool to transfer to A3 after you find availability, if that's the only way you'll end up using the points. So guys just avoid A3 totally.

Offline yandmk

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Re: 45,000 points to israel in business class
« Reply #11 on: July 03, 2018, 07:55:14 AM »
I just booked  2 J seats on UA EWR to TLV (Jul 16) last night for 90k and €9.60 total! Best of all is that it's now bookable online.
Cheapest *A change/cancellation fees.
Also, ex-TLV has much less fees (compared to ex-US) than the OP mentioned for LX/OS/LH

Offline yeshivaman

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Re: 45,000 points to israel in business class
« Reply #12 on: September 12, 2018, 11:22:51 PM »
I've posted this dozens of times.

Is this the best/simplest/cheapest way to go business to Israel?
i wish i knew what i was doing...

Offline mmgfarb

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Re: 45,000 points to israel in business class
« Reply #13 on: September 12, 2018, 11:38:47 PM »
Is this the best/simplest/cheapest way to go business to Israel?
Techinacally but A3 are worth a lot and hard to come by so "cheap" is relative.
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Offline davidrotts63

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Re: 45,000 points to israel in business class
« Reply #14 on: September 12, 2018, 11:40:34 PM »
Techinacally but A3 are worth a lot and hard to come by so "cheap" is relative.
Don't forget I availability is not common, for X it's better but not as much of a bargain.
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Offline yeshivaman

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Re: 45,000 points to israel in business class
« Reply #15 on: September 13, 2018, 06:03:03 AM »
So which business class to israel via points is the best to pursue for a novice like me?
i wish i knew what i was doing...

Offline shmebeble

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Re: 45,000 points to israel in business class
« Reply #16 on: September 13, 2018, 08:15:10 AM »
So which business class to israel via points is the best to pursue for a novice like me?
probably UA has the most availability on partners with the least amount of fuel surcharges. 85k most likely.
Other programs are cheaper, but you will need to worry about fuel surcharges as well.

Offline yeshivaman

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Re: 45,000 points to israel in business class
« Reply #17 on: September 13, 2018, 08:34:08 AM »
probably UA has the most availability on partners with the least amount of fuel surcharges. 85k most likely.
Other programs are cheaper, but you will need to worry about fuel surcharges as well.

Thanks . This is one way, correct?
i wish i knew what i was doing...

Offline davidrotts63

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Re: 45,000 points to israel in business class
« Reply #18 on: September 13, 2018, 09:15:30 AM »
probably UA has the most availability on partners with the least amount of fuel surcharges. 85k most likely.
Other programs are cheaper, but you will need to worry about fuel surcharges as well.
LY has the most availability, which can booked via QF, which is a 1:1 transfer from TYP.
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Offline Hjay

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Re: 45,000 points to israel in business class
« Reply #19 on: September 13, 2018, 09:16:57 AM »
LY has the most availability, which can booked via QF, which is a 1:1 transfer from TYP.

What’s the best or rather easiest way to accumulate TYP?